He is asking the question: Can newspapers transform classifieds from a dull database to a thriving community?

And his answer is: They are going to have to!

Like anyone else in the business he takes on Craiglist as an example where "a dull database" is lively, liked and used by many because (and when) it is served on community space ...

And the Craiglist experience gives the newspaper industry the good and the bad examples for success:

Without the driving force and acknowledgement of a community classified in many newspaper (& magazines) and in many (of around) 100 Craiglist cities (in 20 countries) are dull (and ugly) ... and in some newspapers & some Craiglist cities classified are shiny, liked and used by many.

In short:Michael and his team listened to the advice given and the new rules sound much friendlier, they are straight forward and easier understandable and they comfort and support staff members considering to blog on the companies website

In short:Bloggers are not privileged because they are bloggers. They have the same responsibility to their company, their colleges, their company eco system .. , the same right of expression and the same responsibility, but extended to their blogs ...

Good advice, especially for Blogger's, who are in danger to think from time to time they are special, because they are bloggers ...

"It's turning into quite a week for deals to be announced. Yahoo buys Flickr, Barry Diller buys Ask Jeeves and HP buys Snapfish. Next up, is Topix.net... which hasn't fully been bought out, but close enough.The news aggregation site (which we (techdirt) helped announce back when it launched) has carved itself up and sold off 25% each to three big newspaper players: Knight Ridder, Gannett and the Tribune Media Company. The folks at Topix.net keep the remaining 25% ... " More ...

Following a road the news business "is moving on"? Try to re-integrate into their services what the reader / user want and they need for their ad revenue model?Nachtrag:See what the NYT has to say about that move ... (might need registration)

I have used Le Monde Blogger Platform as one example what newspaper publisher can do for the (existing and potential) readers / users and with blogs, for a while. Now Le Monde has relaunched the Online Portalwith lots of good stuff and solutions for the benefit of their visitors and users / readers (and hopefully also for more profit and a turn around for Le Monde).

LeMonde.fr has revamped its ten year old website, changing its presentation, content, and facilitating site navigation. Less than a quarter of the digital publication will be the same articles that are published in the print edition. Breaking news will be available to everyone and subscribers will be offered additional content and services. All webpages have been redesigned to take full advantage of online features such as video, blogs, search, and interactivity. Reading the online edition will also flow more smoothly as links to related articles and breaking news will be posted at the end of all articles, thus avoiding the "back" button. Le Monde will also syndicate its site with RSS." LeMonde.fr has about 600.000 visitors a day and 60.000 subscribers.

"RSS Gets Poor Marks from Marketers (21 Mar 2005) A new survey by Jupiter revealed widespread skepticism as to the usefulness of RSS feeds among marketers, according to DM News. That skepticism may be well founded given that a recent BlogAds study showed that even the early adopters that tend to read blogs use RSS less frequently than many supposed ..."

and I made a note to look up at Jupiter how DM News came to this story ...

But Bill Flitter from Pheedo has "offered his opinion" on Jupiter's findings already:

Bill writes:"1. Insert "email marketing" where they mention RSS and go back 10-12 years. I am sure JupiterResearch did a similar survey asking marketers about including interactive advertising and email in their marketing plans. A very small universe of marketers were trying it (maybe 6%). I remember trying to convince my CEO to test email. I had to build models and justify the cost. We ended up spending about 80% of our budget with email and email newsletters. Yes, RSS adoption is small. Email did not have billions of people using it on day one either.

2. "However, RSS publishing still faces many hurdles: measuring traffic at least on a subscriber level is nearly impossible to do, which will relegate RSS to a broadcast marketing tool in the near term." Pheedo has solved these issues and will continue to innovate.

3. "RSS is not well suited to promotional-offer-oriented content because it does not offer the targeting and personalization capabilities of e-mail, the report said." This statement is simple not true. In many cases, we have cut our customer's cost-per-acquisition by over 50%.

Bottom line is I am not surprised by the survey results nor worried. RSS will continue to grow. Consumers will adopt it. It will take time but email adoption was not built in a day either. "

Yes, I do fully agree with Bill and suggest to all my clients to run faster to integrate RSS into their market communication, to get this extra bit of competitive advantage ... if you client learn from you the benefits of a new tool and/or service!

and it is quit impressive what is in place right on the start! Beside being a place to share video, audio, photo, text and software for free, its hosting and promoting the Open Media, Open Media producer and a good place to exchange and network. Great work and Thank You!

Can I suggest to add or cooperate with an Open Media Academy (an online and offline blended learning place)! OhmyNews for example has done a great job in develop their collaborator and citizen reporters ...

On Digital-Lifestyles.infoyou can read an interview from Mike Slocombe with JD Lasica (one of the co-founder; new media musings). It gives some additional hints about Ourmedia.org further plans, how it financed and supported ... More

He writes on new media musing:"I'm pretty excited about it. I've put aside my freelance writing for the past half year to work almost exclusively on Ourmedia -- on a strictly voluntary, unpaid basis. Why? Because I deeply believe that citizens media efforts such as this are the wave of the future ... more "

Holy smokes, SOMEBODY out there is bad at keeping secrets!! Yes! We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp. Smack the tattlers and pop the champagne corks!

Woohoo! What does this mean? It means that we'll no longer have to draw straws to see who gets paid, schedule conjugal visits between trips to the colo....wait! That's not what you want to know. This is what you want to know: Auf dem Weg zu 360 Grad ... mehr

Er schreibt:"My company, Thomas Nelson Publishers, is about to launch a corporate blog aggregator site. Internally, we have tried to encourage a small band of employees to begin blogging. The aggregator site will simply link to the individual sites. It will be similar to OfficeZealot.com, but it will be accessible through our main corporate Web site.

Dazu schrieb u.a. Steven Rubel am Dewey’s Weblog heißt es "There is nothing wrong (as in unfair or immoral) with the policy as is. He’s not violating rights or decreasing freedom he’s talking about tit for tat - if you do this then the company will do that.

Thomas Nelson, Inc. is a leading publisher, producer and distributor of books and related works that emphasize Christian, inspirational and family-value themes. The Company believes it is the largest commercial English-language publisher of Bibles and inspirational books. It is also the leading publisher of Christian reference products as gauged by its domination of reference best-seller lists.

Second edition and a comprehensive look each year at the state of American journalism.

From the Preface:"Our goal is to put in one place as much original and aggregated data as possible about each of the major journalism sectors.

For each area, we have produced original research and aggregated existing data into a comprehensive look at many of the pressing issues facing the news media. In addition, we have collected the statistical data in an interactive area called Charts & Tables where users can customize their own charts. This year we have added new elements to the original content study and in most chapters have added an essay from a prominent industry professional or analyst.

The study is the work of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, an institute affiliated with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The study is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and was produced with a number of partners, including Rick Edmonds, the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Michigan State University, the University of Alabama, and Princeton Survey Research Associates International."

And they do!Great reading, good material, an extensive analysis, lots of worth to consider ideas and viewpoints for the rest of us on US Journalism

"Other Advertising's purpose is to help media buyers make the best decisions by bringing new advertising media to their attention, highlight the companies doing the best work and act as a central hub where ideas and pertinent issues are discussed and investigated."

The new magazine starts off as a loose supplement in 30.000 copies of Adweek, Mediaweek and Brandweek to make sure it is reaching the media buyers, corporate brand marketers and advertising agency executives.

It really doesn't come as a surprise to me and I often wonder why so many sites (I appreciate) don't talk to me, if they want to introduce me to their valuable advertisers and partner, but instead keeping sending me one, two, often five, sometimes ten or more cookies and think (or don't think, but sell?) will do their job. So this is my advise:

Watch more, Talk more, Dialog more with your users / visitors / readers and co-edit a communication and service plan!

As many as 39% of online users may be deleting cookies from their primary computer monthly - so, this undermines the usefulness of cookie-based measurement and leaving many site operators flying blind.

52% of online users have a strong interest in stories and articles about Internet security and privacy - so, make transparent what you offer (or force onto) your visitors

38% of online users believe that cookies are an invasion of their security and privacy online - so, talk to them

44% of online users believe that deleting or blocking cookies will protect them - so, this cuts deeply into your inventor you could offer great services from your advertisers and partners

Eric T. Peterson, Analyst at JupiterResearch says:

"Given the number of sites and applications that depend heavily on cookies for accuracy and functionality, the lack of this data represents significant risk for many companies. Because personalization, tracking and targeting solutions require cookies to identify Web visitors over multiple sessions, the accuracy of these solutions has become highly suspect, especially over longer periods of time.

The JupiterResearch report provides also some advice and strategy to site operators how to work in accordance with this findings. More ...

P.S.:As this figures tell about findings in USA, one could estimate that this figures might be even higher in some "privacy aware" countries in Europe and elsewhere.

And off the records:"delaying cookies" is one of my daily routines ... so, if you want to talk to me or introduce me to your advertisers and partners, talk to me (see above).

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

This event is officially sponsored by GAPP, the top regulatory authority of Chinese print media industry. Chinese media organisations as well as foreign media companies are invited to attend the conference and discuss the best ways to restructure and consolidate Chinese print media in the near and long term.

The conference

Media Consolidation and Restructuring: China in the global perspective

will open up debates ranging from:

- how to explore the market potential through innovations in communications- consolidation of media companies and growth of multimedia conglomerates- looking at international and Chinese experience in both consumer and business-to-business (b2b) media- how the capital market works for the media business- how to work with the Chinese media including the agency and advertiser perspective and- building an efficient and competitive national distribution system for print products.

(Just to remind you, he offers you to partizipate in this book, he wants your help, to make a "better" book on the subjects.)

I would prefer to call his lessons "constrains". They might keep you (and him) out of trouble (some times), but his 10 lessons are not enough to make you a successful communicator and authentic, esteemed and relevant blogger- not for your readers, not for the sake of your company and not for yourself!

Robert Scoble starts his 1 - 10 lessons with

1) When you are identifiable in public as part of a company you must be much more careful with using corporate imagery than other people need to be. People get very nervous whenever you talk about competitors or partners in anything but the most glowing terms.2) Always be sensitive to your boss and what he/she expects to see in public ... , whenever I post I think about how I'll justify my post to my boss, my wife, my readers, the execs, my coworkers. I imagine how that post will look on the front of the New York Times.

for lesson 3 - 10 read them at The Red Couch and keep them in mind. But do deliberate breach this and other rules from time to time. That makes you and your blog much more authentic (and does not always cost you your job)!

Blackwell Publishing has launchedOnline Open, a new service giving its contributing authors the chance to pay to see their articles available online for free. Is an industry-wide pattern beginning to emerge?

Blackwell Publishing recently announced it would allow accepted authors to pay a publication fee of USD2,500 (UKP1,250) in order to make their work freely available on its online journals platform, Blackwell Synergy, if they so wish. Articles published under the new Online Open service will also appear in the print edition of journals, where the free online access will be flagged up to readers. Online Open will operate on a trial basis through to the end of 2006, and the initial list of which journals are to participate will be made public within the next two months, with other journals added as they choose to join.

The new Blackwell offering invites comparison with recent rollouts of author-pays options by Springer and the American Institute of Physics (AIP). Springer announced Open Choice in July 2004, giving authors theoption of paying USD 3,000 to have their work available for free online.The American Institute of Physics started offering a similar model, with a USD 2,000 fee, in 1 January 2005. More at EPS Update Note

"A sound case to include Blogs and RSS in your marketing mixBlogs and RSS are a cost-effective customer acquisition tool - soon to be an indispensable marketing strategy. But where do they fit into the marketing mix? I've listed below the more popular online lead generation techniques employed by marketers today. We'll examine each and provide tips on how a Blog or RSS strategy can compliment what you are doing today. "

The complete article and helpful additional resources and links at Pheedo Blog

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

JD Lasica on New media musing got an eMail from Robert Niles, editor of the Online Journalism Review. He writes on New Media Musing:

Today OJR introduced a new feature, a series of wikis on journalism skills, designed for bloggers, "grassroots" reporters and others who write online but who haven't formally studied journalism. We've started with (three) basic guides on writing, reporting and journalism ethics. Each also includes a discussion area, where readers can ask specific questions about projects they are working on or debate controversial elements of these topics.

Great move, first time under Creative Commons license and I hope it gets picked up fast!

1. NYT was buying over a Million pieces of contenton 57.000 subjects... How much would you have to pay to ..., How much time would it take to

2. NYT is buying thousands of "trained" and (now) "skilled" writers... How much time and effort would you need to get, train and pay them?

3. NYT bought our fabulous collaborative guide system... A guide system and publishing tools they have developed over the last 8 years

4. NYT bought into our most-intelligent ad-serving systems

5. NYT bought an audience of around 22 Million visitor a month

6. No one, including the NYT, wouldn't have the time to build a About.com model from the scratch - before the world moves on!

7. Because people working at and with About.com understand their business and doing a great job

Sounds a bit different of what Martin Nisenholtz said in his interview ... that the About.com deal couldn't change much on the way the NYT makes business, but it is helpful to increase inventory for NYT online ads hungry ad clients.

"This is comedy at it's best; mirroring society. He takes his shots at all bloggers too. Watch out Jon Stewart or The Daily Show will be censored next! Will Chairman Ted Stevens come unglued? Is The FCC going to get a call from the PTC to complain about something?"

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

In the newest issue of Indian Media Observer, March 1, 2005, Bhupesh Trivedi from India reports:

Import duty on printing presses slashed by 50 %:The Indian government has slashed the import duty on printing presses by 50 per cent from the financial year April, 2005 to March, 2006 ... more

Government keen on allowing FII investments in print media:Left-leaning Federal information and broadcasting minister S. Jaipal Reddy, in a surprise move, announced that his ministry was keen on enabling direct investments by foreign institutional investors in print media companies in India ... more

Mumbai set to witness a war of English dailies:The English daily newspaper market in the country's commercial capital, Mumbai (Bombay), is all set to witness a major war ... more

Indian Express to go public in six months:The dormant, but widely spread publishing group of Indian Express, has finally woken up.Debt-ridden Indian Express Newspapers (Bom) Ltd, which has several daily newspapers, magazines and online media vehicles, has now started working on coming out with an IPO to raise finances to launch new titles and expand existing ones ... more

Reader's Digest expects over 40 per cent growth in revenue this year:Reader's Digest, the longest-surviving foreign title in the country, is expecting over 40 per cent revenue growth this year ... more

New launches:Among the new launches planned are the Kolkata edition of English business daily FinancialExpress, talent magazine Platform, Chenai edition of English daily The Pioneer and Chandigarh edition of Hindi daily Dainik Jagran.

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